Re: We're not the only community with problems (Fwd: Open Letter to Debian election candidates about Debian vendettas)

+1. Beautifully said, Kalin.

On Mon, Mar 21, 2022 at 6:11 AM Kalin NICOLOV <kalin.nicolov@gmail.com>
wrote:

> Hi Manu,
>
>
>
> I have observed tribalism in its many manifestations since the late 90s
> [OMFG, someone on the internet is wrong, we should go fix it!] and the ugly
> flares in Debian and other FOSS communities like it. In essence every
> volunteer community which is governed by principles will invite the
> subjective nuances to amplify when expressed from leadership.
>
>
>
> It feels that what healthy communities have in common are: 1) no issue
> calling out such behavior and 2) shorter threads in going through those
> “flares”. My reflection is therefore inviting our community to learn from
> others, be at ease calling out politics, othering and behavior that might
> avalanche in a negative way across the community – preferably in a manner
> inclusive and understanding, allowing quick recovery.
>
>
>
> Cheers,
>
> Kalin
>
>
>
> *From: *Manu Sporny <msporny@digitalbazaar.com>
> *Date: *Saturday, 19 March 2022 at 14:17
> *To: *W3C Credentials CG <public-credentials@w3.org>
> *Subject: *We're not the only community with problems (Fwd: Open Letter
> to Debian election candidates about Debian vendettas)
>
> Just a reminder that these "politics" and "other-ing" isn't some weird by
> product of the "identity community", or DIF, or CCG, or OpenID... it's
> endemic
> in any long-lived community composed of human beings.
>
> It's not something you're ever rid of... it's something you manage over
> time;
> leadership plays a big part, as does the community's action (or inaction).
> More communication helps at times, but not always, knowing what methods to
> apply and when is a bit of an art.
>
> The Debian community is 29+ years old at this point, and they still have
> ongoing community issues that requirement management (see below).
>
> I'm only providing this as a data point and not intending this to kick off
> a
> "So, how do we fix this!?" thread -- please avoid starting one, it's
> emotionally draining for everyone involved, is not why most of us are here,
> creates more work for everyone, and rarely results in things that are
> lasting.
> That's not to say the Chairs shouldn't be talking about this, just that
> many
> in the community don't want to be exposed to the drama.
>
> -------- Forwarded Message --------
> Subject: Open Letter to Debian election candidates about Debian vendettas
> Date: Sat, 19 Mar 2022 10:28:08 +0100
> From: Daniel Pocock <daniel@pocock.pro>
> Reply-To: debian-devel@lists.debian.org
> To: Felix Lechner <felix.lechner@lease-up.com>, Hideki Yamane
> <henrich@iijmio-mail.jp>, Jonathan Carter <jcc@debian.org>,
> debian-devel@lists.debian.org, Stephanie Taylor <sttaylor@google.com>
>
> Felix, Hideki, Jonathan
>
> You all nominated as candidates in the Debian election
>
> In August 2018 I publicly resigned from mentoring the Google Summer of
> Code internships.  My resignation email[1] was written diplomatically
> and did not contain any hints about the intern relationships and other
> problems in Debian.
>
> Over four years since my polite resignation, rogue volunteers associated
> with Debian have been making attacks through emails and web sites that
> are causing harm to reputations, families, careers of both volunteers
> and interns, past and present.
>
> This culture of attacks was cultivated by a series of emails sent from
> the leadership role in 2018 when Chris Lamb occupied that position.  No
> subsequent leader has shown any remorse or contrition for the way Lamb
> misused this position.
>
> Other volunteers, for example, Dr Norbert Preining, have resigned[2] in
> disgust at the same culture crisis in Debian.
>
> The recent legal verdict against Red Hat, Inc has explicitly stated that
> overbearing and controlling tendencies of people in leadership roles
> amounts to harassment[3].
>
> As a leader, can you identify anything that is more important than
> stopping, retracting and apologizing for these vendettas that were born
> out of the leadership post you hope to occupy?
>
> Will you publicly denounce the culture of denouncing people?
>
> Does anybody else support an end to hostilities in Debian?
>
> Regards,
>
> Daniel
>
> 1. https://lists.debian.org/debian-outreach/2018/08/msg00108.html
> 2.
>
> https://itwire.com/open-source/debian-developer-demoted,-quits-after-two-decades-with-project.html
> 3. https://www.theregister.com/2022/03/16/red_hat_fedotra/
>